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‘Masters of the Universe’ World Premiere Was A Hit!

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I never in my wildest dreams would’ve thought I’d live to see the day Castle Grayskull became an actual reality. And yet, there in Hollywood, that castle of magic and cosmic mystery stood proud in front of the world-famous Chinese Theater, where the best movies are premiered with a red carpet affair. He-Man, the mightiest man in the universe, deserves no less, and, funny enough, this wasn’t his first time premiering at this legendary cinema.

In 1983, Filmation introduced the unsuspecting public to a brand new cartoon show that would change the world forever and teach children everywhere how powerful imagination truly can be. I was one of those kids. He-Man was a role model and an icon of good. To fight a good fight and never give up. That’s part of why the character has endured generations now.

It’s nuts to think how it’s already been over forty years since that initial premiere, where costumed actors playfully acted out characters who would immediately become undying legends. And, here we are in a new millennium, and at long last, He-Man is back in a powerful way!

This isn’t the first cinematic adventure MOTU has had. Most of us know the disaster of the 1987 film, a movie that’s since gone on to build a cult following, which can finally appreciate the charm the original movie truly has. I never hated the film, but just wished it could’ve been better.

That being said, last night we saw Dolph Lundgren (the original cinematic He-Man) passing the Power Sword over to Nicholas Galitzine (He-Man 2026) in a display of a new era with respect to what came before.

This was all done at a very real Castle Grayskull….ok, just writing that out makes me realize how very surreal this whole thing is. Like, there is a 5 y/o version of me inside my bones jumping up and down like a sugar-crazed chimp right now. This is all too awesome to contain, and yet it’s really happening. Two He-Men stood at a very real Grayskull and passed down the Power Sword from generation to generation. So is the movie any good?

By The Power of Grayskull!

It’s being declared to nay-sayers and haters alike that He-Man is back! He’s so back, baby, and the word is finally out – Masters of the Universe is a hit! People are saying it’s a throwback to the fun, the camp, and the adventure of Saturday morning cartoons, and all of us at Nightmare Nostalgia just can’t get enough of that vibe. This is what we’ve been waiting to hear, and I am relieved.

All my friends know (and by now our readers here too) how important MOTU is to me. This is the one movie I was most afraid to see. What if it’s a big letdown? What if it sucks? What if it’s not faithful?

I Have The Power!

We’ve already seen things that were never in the 1987 movie, and with today’s special effects, the studio can do things simply not possible forty years ago. Just from the trailers alone, we’ve already seen glimpses of Snake Mountain, Battlecat, and a lot more of the heroes and villains that the 1987 movie left out. We’re getting a lot more of Eternia this time around, and the characters, builds, and vibe all feel a lot more faithful here. Also, according to FenixDKevin, “Eternia looks like Rudy Obero’s box art brought to life.” That box art was one of the things that made the toy line stand out above all its competition, so this is incredible news.

I mean, I’m a proud owner of both an original Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain (oh yeah, we collectors even collect boxes) with the artwork in great condition. I feel like I own two masterpieces.

In short, it sounds like MOTU was given to the right person to bring Eternia to life. It’s already being called the surprise of 2026, and both crowds of people who grew up watching MOTU and playing with the toys, as well as those who never did, are saying they loved it.

It’s a great time for fans, and I’ll be there on opening day with my ticket in hand and Skeletor shirt on, representing my favorite IP of all time.

Manic out!

Saturday Morning Cartoons

“Beetlejuice: The Animated Series” Is Still The Greatest Animated Ghost With The Most 35 Years Later

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Though I know I should be wary, Still I venture someplace scary; Ghostly haunting I turn loose… Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!!!

Before we knock around a bit of Beetlejuice cartoon history, let’s rewind our minds back a few years and remember what being a kid was like on a gorgeous Saturday morning.

Unlike my peers, I personally, was always up at a decent hour (around 7:30 a.m.). After crawling out of my Ninja Turtle sheets, I would make my way to the dimly lit kitchen and help myself to a bowl of cereal and whatever readily available juice box (preferably Hawaiian Punch or Ecto Cooler) my fridge held that morning. All placed accordingly on my TMNT (1990) movie tray in front of our mammoth of a television set. I was ready to seize the glorious Saturday with the start of some of the greatest goddamn must-see-TV. And one of many of those amazing Saturday morning animated gems was, of course, Beetlejuice: The Animated Series.

After the massive hit that no one saw coming in 1988, Tim Burton’s BEETLEJUICE left the year as one of the top ten grossing (how appropriate) movies of the year- so naturally Warner Bros wanted to capitalize on the Afterworld film graduate. A sequel WAS planned titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, oh yeah that was going to be a thing, but due to the immense smash that Tim Burton brought forth the following year with BJ star Michael Keaton in tow, BATMAN, Warner opted to shelve Beetlejuice in a grass skirt in favor of focusing on a sequel to the Dark Knight that brought in way more marketing profits for the company.

And for those dying of curiosity, here’s a cool fan-made poster by Redditor Coffin_House on what could have been.

Since WB is no fool, they still knew that had a hot commodity with BeetleGuise a less invasive to the studios’ cartoon was green-lit to be developed by the Juice maker, Tim Burton himself with pal Danny Elfman to compose a whole new theme for the toned-down Bio-Exorcist. Catering to a Saturday morning audience, Beetlejuice went from a slithering snake of a horn dog that manipulates his way into an attempted marriage with Lydia, to the pair becoming pals and the Bio-Exorcist harboring an actual moral compass, (sorry, no crotch grabbing anywhere here). I mean, hey it’s Saturday morning and every show needs a PSA and a message right? Like, lying to your parents might mean you’re going to let loose a hoard of ghostly skeletons that are ready to snitch you out.

LYDIA LIED!

Instead of Winter River, the Deetz family live in Peaceful Pines but it’s mostly set in Beetle’s home The Netherworld. The series ran around some silly adventure or problem week after week involving the duo pf Lydia and BJ. From roaming aforementioned skeletons in the closet ruining someone’s day with the hard truth or Beetlejuice’s entire skeletal system abandoning him in favor of a vacation. The show was a perfect Saturday morning mash-up of wackiness and just a hint of horror.

Lydia’s parents Charles and the eccentric Delia return in animated form as naive supporting characters that never seem to notice their daughter spends most of her free time in another dimension. Then again, in the film, she seemed to be mostly ignored by her self-absorbed parental units until the shit hit the fan- so the relationship stays a tad faithful in that aspect. 

The void felt by the absence of Barbara and Adam was filled with new characters. Beetle’s neighbors in the Netherworld furthered BJ’s awesome sense of sarcasm with most of them being both clumsy and easy to poke fun at. In which case, ole BJ took advantage of on a consistent basis and was the source for a lot of the humor in the series. Jacques, Ginger, The Monster Across the Street, Poopsie, the Mayor, and on Earth, the snooty Claire Brewster, were often the victims of Beetlejuice’s embarrassing pranks.  Even Lyds wasn’t immune to Beetle’s reign of practical jokes as his only friend was even the butt-of-the-joke at times. However, unlike Claire and the Netherworld residents, BJ’s pranks on the teenage Deetz were never meant to cause damaging feelings or humility, but rather all in fun. Which asserts the relationship between Lydia and Beetlejuice in the series. Unlike in the film, the pair was as close as friends could get and the unlikely duo’s friendship remained a constant crucial part of the show throughout the series’ short three-season span.

One newly added character, Barry MeNot, stood out as the only CGI character among the classically animated counterparts and was something a lot of us didn’t see too much of in this cartoon era. He was the TV (Neitherworld Television) personality who appears in various “commercials” that sometimes pop up to emphasize a particular plot point in the show. He sold the hell out of those Scream Puffs to me.

BEETLEJUICE: THE ANIMATED SERIES first premiered on ABC Saturday mornings on September 9th, 1989 running right behind SLIMER! AND THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS for a ghostly hour of fun on the weekend and later moved to FOX Kids weekday afternoon lineup as one of the FIRST animated shows to be added. And after 35 years since its debut, this little piece of netherworldly nostalgia has remained in our beloved hearts ever since.

The animated series is almost impossible to be able to find on streaming these days, unless you want to buy episodes from Amazon Prime and that’s just a damn shame. However, if you download the  FreeVee app, there’s a channel called Cartoon Rewind that occasionally runs marathons of the show. Unfortunately, it’s not an On Demand thing so you’ll quite literally have to live like it’s 1989 and just wait for it like in the caveman days!

It’s more than worth it.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Saturday Morning Slams! Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling!

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Well, lemme tell you something Mean Gene: It’s been a hot minute since we covered any Saturday Morning slammin’ 80s cartoons and I can’t think of anything quite more that speaks to the decade than the shameless animated commercial geared towards kids. Yep, let’s dive into Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling!

The Dic Animation series premiered originally on CBS in 1985 and only lasted for two seasons, but even a short-lived cartoon of such a popular subject left its imprint on 80s kids. Wrestling in the mid-80s was peak entertainment for pretty much anyone and everyone with Vince McMahon bringing the sport mainstream with soap-opera dramatics and a superhero archetype for the kids to worship- Hulk Hogan. Love him, or hate him, he made the sport a rite of passage for every man, woman, and child during that time and you just have to respect that. I’m not even sure Wrestling would be as mainstream today if it wasn’t for Thunderlips, I mean Hogan. At night, we had Saturday Night’s Main Event, and in the morning, we had Rock ‘n’ Wrestling. 

Image via Mercari

Of course, we can’t have a superhero without a bad guy and the man for the job was Roddy Piper– the man, the mouth, the legend. Each episode took the basic formula that wrestling had of good guys vs bad guys and would feature Hogan leading the good guys against a group of rogue wrestlers led by Piper. Like with other cartoons at the time, we usually had a happy ending and with the good vs bad trope, each episode put both groups into wacky situations that would always result in the goodies coming out on top.

As a young Piper fan, this kind of pissed me off. Yes. I was the little sociopath who really loved seeing Hot Rod get wild and slam coconuts into the skull of Superfly, (and if you know anything about Snuka’s murder charges- that sweet coconut music slaps even harder). But, this was the formula and so it shall be that Piper didn’t get on that goodie-two-shoes train until a bit later. But never wavering with his smartass remarks. I respected that. Don’t get me wrong, as a young girl, I loved the shit out of Wendi Richter because, well as a girl I felt represented. Of course, I didn’t find out until years later how the company did her dirty as she seemed to disappear from the ring almost as fast as she entered it. Which is a damn shame, but I’m happy she was at least immortalized in this crazy cartoon alongside the greats.

Anyways, the show would also feature live-action segments with the wrestlers and songs from their WWF album. “Land of 1000 Dances” which I totally loved at the time and still sing very loudly, “Hogan’s such a yoyo” to anyone that would hear it.

Although we got to see our heroes in the show in these weird live segments, they themselves didn’t provide the voices of their animated counterparts and professional voice actors were brought in. Most notably, Brad Garrett voiced Hogan.

As stated, the series didn’t last beyond two short seasons and that was simply because the cartoon couldn’t keep up with the real-life events of the wrestling world. Most noticeably, Andre, the Giant turned heel shortly after the cartoon started airing, so in the animated series, it just didn’t make much sense. The plan was indeed to keep the cartoon in line with current stories in real-time wrestling but animating at the time, was a slower process and just couldn’t play catch-up.

After its short run on CBS Saturday mornings, the series still continued with reruns on alternate networks. I mostly remember watching it on the USA network around 87-88 in my area, just before one of their late-morning Saturday programs of matches. It was a pretty great cartoon for what it’s worth even with all the flaws, and it serves its purpose of grabbing our attention in a sea of Saturday morning cartoons while also making Hulkamaniacs into those who hadn’t yet caught the wrestling train to 24-inch Python-ville.

So let’s raise our glasses of vitamin D milk to Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling, this badass Rocky-inspired intro, and the poor lady that got trampled towards the end of this intro that never even bothered editing out.

Fantastic, man.